Mangroves – trees and shrubs that grow in coastal waters – absorb ten times as much carbon as land-based trees, which is why Apple announced last year that it was investing in a mangrove restoration project in Colombia. The company has marked Earth Day by reporting back on the environmental project.
Apple said in September that it would be supporting a project to protect and restore a 27,000-acre mangrove forest …
Today’s update highlights the delicate balance required for the mangroves to thrive.
The consequences of loss of mangroves are dramatic.
Pressures from illegal farming, fishing and logging combined with climate change are threatening their existence. “There are many illegal groups working in the mangroves,” Canchila Avila says. “They don’t know or care for the sustainability efforts.” According to Conservation International, when degraded or destroyed, mangroves and other coastal ecosystems emit the carbon they have stored for centuries into the atmosphere and become sources of greenhouse gases.
The work funded by Apple is helping analyze the carbon trapped in the sediment, and then developing incentives for protecting the plants.
You can read more about the mangrove restoration project here.
Apple recently published its 2019 Environmental Responsibility Report, which highlighted a 35% lower carbon footprint compared to 2015, and announced that it had quadrupled its iPhone recycling program.
